AMHERST, Mass. -- Joel Embiid couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A double team. In a preseason matchup. In his debut.
Welcome to the NBA.
Embiid played his first NBA game Tuesday night, a 92-89 Sixers' win over the Celtics at UMass-Amherst (see Instant Replay). He had been sidelined since being drafted in 2014, undergoing two foot surgeries in as many years.
While he had to shake off the rust, the competition wasted no time trying to stop the 7-foot-2 big man.
“You’re really going to double-team, first game, second quarter?” Embiid said. “That kind of messed me up after that. But that’s something that I’m going to go back, watch film, learn from it and next game if it happens again I’ll be ready for it.”
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Embiid scored six points (2 for 6 from the field, 2 for 2 from the line), four rebounds (two offensive), two blocks, two fouls and three turnovers. He played one minute beyond his 12-minute restriction from the staff.
“You start with the emotional side of watching him be on the floor and running up and down,” Brett Brown said. “You see immediately there’s a confidence and a swagger that he carries himself with. He wants the ball.”
Embiid missed his first three attempts, all jumpers, before he connected on a turnaround fadeaway over Tyler Zeller toward the end of the first quarter. He followed it up with a block against Jaylen Brown.
Finding his rhythm was important to Embiid. After scoring his first points, he was more energized. He had a shift in mentality and felt “free.”
“At the beginning I was pretty nervous,” he said. “I think I had trouble breathing, it was hard. Once I got the first bucket, everything slowed down, I started to see the game easier. I just felt like I was myself again.”
Embiid, though, may be his own toughest critic.
“Offensively I think I was pretty bad, which we’ve still got to work on it,” he said. “But defensively I felt I did a pretty good job there. I still have to learn all our concepts, still got to be the defensive piece they want me to be.”
Embiid already knows what he wants to improve. He plans to attack the basket earlier instead of going for jump shots to start the game. He believes the court will open up for him if he goes for jump hooks and easy layups to early on.
“Because of his height, he’s going to be able to get off jump shots about any time he wants,” Brown said. “We want to encourage more post-ups, more getting to the rim, more getting to the line. Find balance of inside-outside game.”
Embiid has set high expectations for his success. While his goal was to simply play in his first NBA game regardless of his stat line, he has set lofty goals.
“Honestly, I felt the 12 minutes I was going to play, I thought I was going to come out and score like 40 points,” he said.
His next chance to do so will be Thursday against the Wizards.
